Modern process control systems often include data networks to interconnect multiple, and possibly numerous, networked nodes, such as controllers, workstations, etc. Such process control systems typically require certain common information to be available at some or all of the networked nodes. Examples of information that may be need to be commonly available include the addresses of some or all the nodes in the system, display configuration information for generating common displays at various nodes in the system, etc. In many implementations, the common information is stored as one or more configuration files on each node. When one or more of these configuration files change, the updated file(s) need to be synchronized between system nodes as quickly as possible to keep the common information current. However, file synchronization is often a low priority operation performed in a sequential manner due to the limited resources (e.g., processor speed, network bandwidth, etc.) characteristic of the type of nodes used to implement process control systems. Limited node resources can preclude the use of existing file synchronization techniques that are more sophisticated, and therefore faster, than the slower approach of sending an updated configuration file sequentially from an originating node to each of the other nodes in the process control system.